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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



STUDY TO BE QUIET 



STUDY TO BE QUIET 



BY 

EDGAR W. WORK 



SECOND EDITION 



3 3 3 

y 3 3 j 



CHICAGO 

THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1904 



LlfiR*«Y ** CONGRESS 
Two Oooies Received 

SEP 3 1904 
\ Cooyrfeht Entry 

: ?tu^ IX~ let o*\- 
CLASS a xXc No. 

% °\ S *h ^ 
COPY B 



"BV^5oi 



Copyright, 1903 

BY THE 

ENDEAVORER PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Copyright, 1904 

BY 

THE WINONA PUBLISHING COMPANY 



DEDICATED 

TO THE 

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORERS 

OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA AS A CONTRIBUTION TO THE 

"QUIET HOUR" 



Contents 



PAGE 

A Pauline Sentence - - - n 

The Quiet of Trust - - 19 

The Quiet of Prayer - - - 35 

The Quiet of Speech - - 51 

The Quiet of Service - 69 



A Pauline Sentence 



Study to be Quiet* 



i 

A Pauline Sentence 

It contains but four words — in the Greek but 
two. Nevertheless it is a little sentence to be 
lingered over, to be meditated upon, to be carried 
in the heart as a vade mecum. What Emerson 
said of Montaigne is still more true of Paul the 
apostle. His words are "vascular and alive.' ' 
"Cut these words and they would bleed/ ' 

May they bleed thought and help for us as we 
think of the need of Quiet, and of the things that be- 
long to Quiet, as the necessary background of the 
Christian life. It is trite to say that our age is 
hasty and restless. But it has not yet been too 
often said that Christianity's message in part to 
the world is a message of quiet strength and re- 
joicing amidst turmoil and haste. The Christian 
faith, to be sure, is dynamic in its influence upon 
men, yet at the same time it is ever summoning 

* i Thessalonians 4:11. 

1 ni ( 
li 



Study to be Quiet 

men back to the silent sources to the steadying 
processes of faith, where life may obtain its poise, 
secure its own legitimate privacy, inherit the gifts 
and graces of Quiet. The terminology of the 
subject — "silence," "stillness/' "calm," the 
"inner life" — has a strange sound in the ears of 
these noisy generations. 

Perhaps it is, as a commentator upon one of 
the modern mystics says, because it is "not a 
truth for all markets." It must be confessed 
indeed that Quietism, in its many historical mani- 
festations, has produced frequent exaggerations 
and vagaries. Yet even Carlyle, whose rugged- 
ness clears him of the charge of mysticism, thought 
that men are apt to be too busy, too scant in silence. 
"Silence," said he, "is the element in which 
great things fashion themselves." 

The apostle Paul was no mystic. He writes 
indeed of being carried into the seventh heaven 
of vision and he has much to say of the deep 
things of the Christian faith. Yet he is always 
the most practical of men, teaching ever the insist- 
ence of task, as well as the importance of vision. 
Paul illustrates a combination of qualities. He 
puts duty with doctrine, action with vision, service 
with thought, works with faith. He calls men to 
a personal and growing acquaintance with Jesus 
Christ their Lord, in order that they may go out 

12 



A Pauline Sentence 



and do His work with loving hearts. Keenly alive 
as he is to the need of activity, Paul also insists 
upon Quiet, such Quiet for the Christian as is 
described by Fellowship, Meditation, Communion, 
Growth. The great apostle himself must have 
his quiet years in Arabia before he could begin 
his apostolic labors. 

There were special reasons for writing thus to 
the Thessalonian Christians. In the New Testa- 
ment there are three separate words meaning to be 
quiet. The one Paul uses in writing to the Thessa- 
lonians means a general condition of mind, a state 
of heart. We infer that there were some restless 
Christians in Thessalonica. Some indeed deserved, 
as he thought, the name busybodies, persons who 
inclined to make religion a matter of noise and 
agitation.* Some perhaps who had neglected the 
regulation of themselves and the discharge of their 
own duty in running about to do many things. 
This is evidently the point of his frank injunction, 
"that ye study to be Quiet, and to do your own 
business, and to work with your own hands. ' ' It 
is the emphasis of the deeply personal quality in 
religion. It is a call to them to build themselves 
up in their inner life, and to do their own duty. 

He means, in short, to bring them back to the 
quiet sources of a Christian life, as if he would 

* 2 Thessalonians 3:11, 12. 

13 



Study to be Quiet 

say, Lead a quiet and dutiful life. Do the task 
that belongs to you. Be not ambitious for place, 
and be delivered from officious meddlesomeness, 
from strained and unnatural exertions, from a noisy, 
clacking life, full of the sound of machinery. Do 
your work quietly. Let your life be deep. Be 
something more than a. petty Christian, living a 
meager life of slim and insignificant incident. Act 
strongly without. Live deeply within. 

This Pauline counsel is very valuable to-day. 
The Christian of to-day needs silence, including, as 
the word does, whatever is of the inner life, what- 
ever is preparatory in the heart, whatever repre- 
sents the deepening of the souFs experience. 
Study to be Quiet means, not less activity, less 
doing, but more thought, more worship, more 
prayer, more secret, personal education of the heart 
in grace and knowledge. There is nothing morbid, 
mystical, or ascetic about this claim. 

Nothing can take the place of spiritual fellow- 
ship. We must desire our Shepherd to lead us 
"beside the still waters," where we may find time 
to feel, to grow, to understand, to resolve. No 
Christian can afford to neglect the culture of the 
heart. "The kingdom of God cometh not with 
observation." A Christian character grows as the 
temple was built, without sound of hammer or axe, 
or "any tool of iron. ,, The roots of the spiritual 



A Pauline Sentence 



life are in such silences as trust, prayer, meditation, 
and obedience. 

There is a peril of the spiritual life which should 
make us afraid. It is the peril of emptiness. It 
is possible to exercise many functions of the Chris- 
tian life, and at the same time to illustrate the truth 
of the poet's line — 

" 'Tis life of which our veins are scant.' ' 
The hands may be full and the heart empty. It is 
possible to be "rich in outward incident, but poor 
in inward experience." Outward incident is plen- 
tiful enough, organizations, committees, telephones, 
engagements, letters, meetings, testimonies, and 
plans. These are well and good. 

In the midst of all these let us make sure that 
we are not "poor in inward experience. ,, Hear 
the call to silence. Study to be Quiet. Find 
time to live in the heart, to think, and to pray. 
Learn the value of the Quiet Hour. Practice the 
presence of God. Come often to the Church of 
the Burning Bush. 

This is the meaning that we find in the Pauline 
sentence for the Christian of to-day. Study to be 
Quiet. It is no separative or mystical counsel. It 
lays stress upon preparation. It emphasizes the 
inner as the condition of the outer. It summons 
the believer again and again to the store-houses of 
God. It accentuates the quiet things in faith. It 

J 5 



Study to be Quiet 

does not deprecate a resourceful life, but it urges 
hat the springs of life shall be deep, not shallow. 
With the emphasis of the modern conditions which 
every Christian must face, it calls us to all that is 
sweetest, strongest, most personal, most real, in 
our holy faith. 

And the first lesson is the lesson of the Quiet 
of Trust. 



x6 



The Quiet of Trust 



II 

The Quiet of Trust 

One of the great words of the Christian vocabu- 
lary is Trust. It is impossible to express in cold 
and formal sentences the richness and the power of 
Christian Trust. Putting aside all severe or meta- 
physical definitions, there is one thing that we wish 
to see clearly, that Trust is essentially the quiet of 
the soul before God. The Psalmist has expressed 
this thought very beautifully, "Be still and know 
that I am God. " Distrust is agitation: Trust is 



stillness. It is at bottom the contented feeling that 
accompanies the heart's confession of God's great- 
ness, goodness, power, and wisdom. 

Says the Psalmist again, "Rest in the Lord, 
and wait patiently for Him. M Luther gave this 
sentence "a literal rendering. It means, he said, 
"Be silent to God, and let him mould thee." The 
child of God should learn to be silent toward his 
Heavenly Father. No intellectual rights, nothing 
of his own mental or spiritual freedom, is taken 
away from him. Yet he counts it all joy to "cast 
down imaginations and every high thing that exalt- 
eth itself against the knowledge of God, and to 
bring into captivity every thought to the obedience 

19 



Study to be Quiet 

of Christ." In the joy of trust the mind loses not 
its intellectual freedom, its imaginings, its ques- 
tions, but loses its querulousness. In the system 
or plan of trust life organizes itself about the great 
centers which God has furnished, such as Love, 
Wisdom, Power, Sacrifice. Trust is the deep 
satisfaction of the heart with God, and with the 
known qualities of the divine character. "When 
I saw Theseus, " said Iole, "there was yet some- 
thing that I desired that Theseus did not give. 
But when I saw Hercules, my heart was at rest, 
and I was silent before him." When God the 
Father is revealed to the soul by faith, the soul is 
contented, asks for nothing more, is silent and glad 
and confident before Him. This is Trust. It is 
very simple, yet it is the sublimest act of the 
mind. 

Trust is not based upon understanding, but 
upon love. We do not trust God because we 
know all about Him. We know that God is love, 
and we love Him because He first loved us. Then 
Trust comes. Philosophy exalts understanding. 
Christianity exalts love and trust. Religion, in- 
deed, has an intellectual element, and seeks under- 
standing along with trust. But in religion faith is 
higher than knowledge. A religion that consists 
of clear thought, of cogent argument, of piled-up 
knowledge, a religion that insists upon knowledge 



The Quiet of Trust 

to the last degree, may be as strongly joined as a 
piece of carpentry, but it will be as cold and glitter- 
ing as an icicle. No one puts an icicle into his 
bosom to obtain warmth. The warmth of religion 
comes by trust. The analogy of human loves and 
friendships is sufficient. If love and friendship be 
not something more than a measured, mechanical 
knowledge, if there come not to the heart some- 
thing of the abandon of trust, then love and friend- 
ship are only empty names. So the heart wishes 
to give itself up, wishes to make a great venture 
with God, is contented to go with Him even beyond 
the reach of its own knowledge. It is this venture 
of faith, this sweet privilege of trust, that brings a 
glow to the heart. 

Victor Hugo wrote to his little daughter Didine 
from the seashore: "I have written your name, 
little daughter, on the sands to-day. The tide will 
rise and the waves will wash it away; but nothing 
can wash away your name from my heart. ' ' Trust 
is the souFs deep conviction that God is our Father 
and that He will never lose us out of His sight. 
Many waters cannot quench His love. "I will 
never leave thee nor forsake thee. ' ' 

There are two laws: one is the law of knowl- 
edge; the other is the law of love and trust. 
Knowledge is strong and hard, full of imperious 
demands. Trust is warm and tender and eager, 

21 



Study to be Quiet 

glad to walk as a little child in touch with the 
Father's hand. When Paul writes of the "peace 
of God that passeth all understanding, ' ' he means 
the peace that is not based upon understanding. 
The peace of knowledge is based upon understand- 
ing. The peace of God is not dependent upon 
understanding. We may lack in knowledge, and 
at the same time be rich in peace. Thinking of 
this fact of the superiority of trust to knowledge, 
Lessing wrote his great sentence: "He who does 
not lose his reason in certain things has none to 
lose. ' ■ Trust is not contrary to reason, but it is 
often higher than reason. Religion is deeper than 
thinking. It is down in those depths of life where 
the blood runs red, where all tender and formative 
feelings of the soul reside. "The heart often has 
reasons, " said Pascal, "that the Reason knows not 
at all." 

One who visited the poet Wordsworth relates 
an incident of the conversation. They were en- 
joying together a magnificent mountain view in the 
Lake country. The poet remarked that travelers 
boasted much of the Swiss mountains, because 
they were much higher than the English. "I 
reply," said he/ "that the clouds gather so low on 
them that half of them remains commonly out of 
sight. ' ' The visitor remained silent, and the poet 
repeated the statement in different forms. At 

22 



The Quiet of Trust 

length Wordsworth said, "You cannot see those 
boasted Swiss mountains when the clouds hang 
low ? ' ' " Certainly not, ' ' replied his visitor. Then, 
after a pause, the poet's characteristic veracity 
prevailed, and he added, "But I must admit, you 
know that they are there. " Trust is knowing that 
God is there, even though understanding may not 
fully see. 

The meaning of the quiet of trust begins to 
emerge. The heart knows God for what He is, 
and is still before Him. Because of the silence of 
trust the heart ceases to be torn by fears or doubts. 
Trust is the enemy of fear. God "sets a higher 
value on our trust than on our trembling. ' ' We 
stand upon grounds of friendship with him. You 
will not doubt your earthly friend whatever appear- 
ances may say. So the Christian is quiet in trust, 
knowing that his Friend is true. He will even 
say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. ,, 
Trust is the secret strength of religion in the heart. 
The jars and changes of life will come, but they 
cannot shake our trust if it is as deep-seated as it 
ought to be. They who lose their faith when the 
conditions of life change, and the facts of life seem 
to stand awry, have no depth in their trust. It is 
shallow and too easily exhausted. 

In the % Bible the mountains are frequently 
taken as the symbol of God's character. "The 

23 



Study to be Quiet 

heights of the mountains are His also. " "In 
His hand are the deep places of the earth/' 
"Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." 
When we lift up our eyes in joy and confidence unto 
the hills, we know that they have deep foundations. 
But the real strength of the mountains is hidden. 
Ruskin remarks that every great mountain is 
founded on a hundred mountains buried out of 
sight. The Cross itself stands "towering o'er the 
wrecks of Time/' because of its "root among 
eternal things." What a rebuke this thought of 
the "abiding facts" of God is to the shallowness of 
our trust. A writer speaks of how the stars wheel 
to their stations in the sky, making "the poor 
world-fret of no account." 

We need a deep and rich Trust in God that can- 
not be easily defeated. We need a great Quiet in 
the heart, that storms cannot reach. When the 
generals of thought, of trouble, of sin, lead their 
armies against us, we shall have a refuge in the 
heart's trust. We shall go back and rest in the 
stillness of the heart, and wait until the storm is 
overpast. We shall say in the quiet of trust, 
"Though an host should encamp against me, my 
heart shall not fear." The secret of permanency 
in the Christian life is in having an established 
heart. Twice the Psalmist declares, "My heart 
is fixed, ' ' and again he declares of the good man ; 

H 



The Quiet of Trust 

"He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is 
fixed, trusting in the Lord. ' ' Study to be quiet in 
your soul toward God. Win for yourself the silent 
victories of trust. Pray that you may come to 
know the majesty and the calm of a simple, undis- 
turbed Trust in God. Blessed is the servant of 
God who has mastered the art of being quiet 
before God. "When the soul has laid down its 
burden at the feet of God, it feels as if it had 
wings.' ' Hence the life of trust is no mere pas- 
sive existence. Rather it is full of all beautiful 
actions. 

The Psalms are pre-eminently the literature of 
trust. Read especially the thirty-seventh, the 
forty-sixth, the fifty-sixth, the fifty-seventh, the 
sixty-second, the eighty-fourth, the one hundred 
and eighth, the one hundred and twelfth, and the 
one hundred and fifteenth. Luther spoke of the 
Psalms as "the copy-book of the saints." He 
who will catch the spirit of these devout hymns 
of the Psalmist will know the alphabet of trust. 
The Christian should be as intelligent as possible. 
Let him know history, literature, science, if he can, 
but let him not fail to understand that a large part 
of the spiritual training of a child of God is the 
education in trust. In God's school, which must 
needs have its discipline as well as its instruction 
and entertainment, many school-masters are seek- 

25 



Study to be Quiet 

ing to lead us into the quiet ways of trust in God. 
Study to be quiet in God's school, and to learn its 
lessons faithfully and well. Many a glad surprise 
will come to God's servants who learn to be silent 
unto God permitting Him to mold them. 

"O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that 
trusteth in Thee. ' ' This is the closing strain of 
that sublime song of trust, the eighty-fourth Psalm. 
What are the particular blessings that come with 
Trust? They are three: Submission, Joy, and 
Stability. 

The first blessing of Trust is Submission. 
Admit, Submit, Commit, Transmit! — this is the 
way our education runs. Submission comes early. 
It must come early, and must last to the end. 
Trust is an act of humility. Put God over, and 
yourself under. Religion without submission is 
like a tripod with a broken foot. A fraction grows 
as the numerator increases and the denominator 
decreases. Increase your numerator. Lessen 
your denominator. More of God, less of self. 
"He must increase! I must decrease." Yet this 
is very far from being the self-effacement of those 
helpless and inhuman Oriental philosophies, that 
find the climax of religion in Annihilation. Chris- 
tian submission to God is of another spirit. It is 
not the absorption of self that self may be lost, but 
the submission of self that self may emerge again 

26 



The Quiet of Trust 

with new meanings, new potencies, new elevations 
in life. The type of this submission is that of 
Christ, who was "highly exalted," because he 
"humbled himself ' and became obedient unto 
death. It is that of the apostle Paul also who 
said, "When I am weak, then am I strong. " It 
is ours to learn obedience, as the Master did before 
us. And when we have learned obedience, we 
come to that new elevation in life which represents 
no loss to ourselves, but an inexpressible gain 
instead. This is the blessing of trustful submis- 
sion to God. It is the gift of power. It is the 
exaltation of humility. It is the afterglow of Trust 

Have we really submitted ourselves to God in 
Christian trust? Have we truly committed our 
ways unto God? Have we gone with Isaiah into 
the Temple Court, and said unto God, "Here am 
I, Lord, send me"? 

If any of us seem to ourselves to be lacking in 
that new and potent elevation of life which carries 
with it no pride of perfection, no selfish joy of 
superiority, but which is the unmistakable sequence 
of a humble self -surrender, then it is probable that 
we have such questions as these to face and con- 
sider. The way of power for the child of God is 
the way of submission. 

And out of the heart of submission comes Joy, 
which is the second child of Trust. Nothing brings 

27 



Study to be Quiet 

such quiet joy to the heart as trustful submission 
to God. We are uneasy, anxious, troubled, the 
waters of our souls tossed like an angry sea. We 
come and lay our lives, our ambitions, our plans, 
upon the altar, and God gives us his peace. Peace 
through submission! Joy the handmaid of Trust! 
"Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in 
Him, and He shall bring it to pass. " Many of 
God's servants rob themselves of the greater meas- 
ures of joy because they are not quiet before God 
in submissive trust. They plunge like wild horses, 
strain like a ship at its moorings. They live too 
independently, marking out their own course, 
asserting too freely their own wills, putting their 
own ambitions first. They seek their own, not the 
things of God. But the way of peace is the way 
of submission. The surprise of Joy comes when 
you are willing to give God the highest right to 
your life. The Quiet of Trust and Submission 
will bring the stillness of Joy. Then you will 
know the spiritual interpretation of the calm that 
God gives after storm. "Then are they glad 
because they be Quiet. f ' Jesus spoke of this as 
"my peace." It is the peace that Jesus had, and 
which he gives to his disciples. With this quiet peace 
of trust the Christian may look out upon the world- — 

" With an eye made quiet by the power 
Of harmony, and the deep power of Joy." 
28 



The Quiet of Trust 

The final blessing of Trust is Stability. A 
mighty trust produces a mighty strength. The 
strength of the Christian is born of command, not 
his own, but God's command. The strength of 
the world is noisy and demonstrative. It is the 
strength of nature, of will, of organization. The 
world does great things by its strength. But only 
a man of mighty trust in God could say, ' ' I can do 
all things through Christ who strengthened me." 
The strength of God's kingdom is quiet, yet effi- 
cient, like the drawing of gravitation. The Master 
of the kingdom knew this strength when he said, 
"I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men.'' Such 
strength, such stability, is deep-seated in the will 
and nature of God. The Psalmist felt that he 
should "not be moved" because he trusted might- 
ily in God. ' l In quietness and confidence shall be 
your strength, " says the prophet. The writer of 
Hebrews finds cheer in the thought that we have 
received "a kingdom which cannot be moved." 
When this has become a personal assurance, then 
the final blessing of Trust comes. Blessed are 
they who keep ever their quiet confidence in God. 
They shall inherit strength. The most masterful 
thing in life is Trust. 

There are some things from which God's chil- 
dren should be delivered by the Quiet of Trust. 
One of these is worry. It is admitted to be diffi- 

29 



Study to be Quiet 

cult to live a calm and simple life amidst a great 
complexity of affairs. There is a louder call for 
the Quiet of Trust to-day than ever before. Worry, 
Fret, Distraction — Trust should at least limit the 
authority of these masters of men. Too many 
Christians wear themselves out in the paltry and 
petty worries of life, making their lives to depend 
upon the state of the weather or upon the price of 
wheat, worrying "about every heat of their body," 
concerned with "a thousand peering littlenesses. " 
This is not of faith. Trust has something better 
for us than the thralldom of fear. The freedom 
of God's children is not mechanical and legal 
merely. It is vital. Let Christ take away your 
bondage, bringing you into his "glorious liberty." 

And Haste — Trust should deliver us from haste. 
We do not forget that "the King's business re- 
quires haste." Eagerness, energy, enterprise, are 
prime qualities in the kingdom. Yet God's king- 
dom is built, not by the hasting, restless spirit, but 
by the patient and trustful soul. The prophet 
speaks the word of the Lord, "Behold I lay in 
Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a 
precious corner-stone, a sure foundation. He that 
believeth shall not make haste. 

He that believeth that life hath sure founda- 
tions, laid of God, shall not be given to the wearing 
haste of life. He that believeth shall not run to 

30 



The Quiet of Trust 

and fro in search of rest. He shall not be shifting 
hither and thither like the sand. He shall not be 
a creature of agitation and unrest, torn apart by 
trouble, broken in pieces by anxiety. There is a 
great gift of calm in Christian Trust. There is a 
mighty power of restfulness in being Quiet before 
God. 

Restlessness is far too common among God's 
children. We are beset by all manner of fears. 
Thoughts of success and failure, thoughts of gain 
and loss, thoughts of confidence and fear, encom- 
pass us and limit our freedom. The world knows 
naught of rest, and many who are in God's king- 
dom have lost their message of quiet for the world. 
There is a striking lack of spiritual poise and con- 
tentment, and trust seems not to bring its steady- 
ing power as it ought. 

The trouble is that the " vertigo of civilization' ' 
has laid hold of us. The whirl of affairs has 
reached the hearts of God's people. "Things are 
in the saddle," as Carlyle said, "and they ride 
men." The tasks of life are become labor, and 
the "quiet and peaceable life," of which the New 
Testament speaks, loses its attractiveness for us. 

Let the child of God study to be quiet. Let 
not the haste and weariness of the world possess 
us. Let there be for us something more than 
affairs. Let us find again our secret of rest, and 

31 



Study to be Quiet 

deliver its message to the restless age about us. 
Do your own work. Do it well. Do it to the 
utmost. And keep your fellowship with God as 
the background of work. Go back again and again 
to the spiritual sources that feed life, to the quiet 
things in faith. Live a simple life in Trust. Mark 
the example of the early disciples, "that small 
transfigured band whom the world could not tame, ' ' 
of whom it was said, that they ate "their meat 
with gladness and singleness of heart. ' f Changed 
as the conditions of life are since apostolic days, 
there is still a mighty call to the children of God to 
go in and out before men with the steadiness and 
joy of a trustful spirit, unhasting and unafraid, as 
if repeating to the world the words of Christ, 
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden and I will give you rest." 



32 



The Quiet of Prayer 



Ill 

The Quiet of Prayer 

Let the Pauline sentence bring us another mes- 
sage about the quiet things of the spiritual life. 
Let us study to be quiet in prayer. Let us come 
to know the Quiet of Prayer. 

So large a subject as Prayer may be viewed in 
many different aspects. The simplest of all defi- 
nitions of Prayer is this: Prayer is being alone with 
God. It is coming into the Quiet of God's Pres- 
ence. It is the time, the hour, the moment, when, 
more than any other time, we study to be quiet 
before God in our spirits, that we may speak and 
be spoken to. It is that intimate, spiritual com- 
munion and conversation when they — 

" Whom the heart of man shuts out 
Straightway the heart of God takes in, 
And fences them all round about 
With silence 'mid the world's loud din." 

The quiet of prayer is the sweetest, most reas- 
suring experience that ever comes into a Christian's 
life. In the quiet of prayer God isolates the soul. 
Even more, in the quiet of prayer, God insulates 
the soul, and throws about it the separative protec- 
tion of his own Presence. It is the time when we 

35 



Study to be Quiet 

go aside with the Father of our spirits, as when 
Christ took the deaf and the blind by the hand and 
led them apart from the multitude. In such an 
hour the soul is cut off from affairs and is shut in 
with God. The Apostle Peter's counsel to ' 'watch 
unto prayer" really means "be sober unto prayer." 
(R. V.) 

This call to be alone with God in the quiet of 
prayer is imperative. Heed it not, and the troubles 
of the soul begin. One of the perils of the spir- 
itual life is the peril of being so busy, so full of the 
rush and tempest of life, that the heart gives slight 
attention when " thine ears shall hear a word 
behind thee, saying, 'This is the way.' " Much 
of our life must be lived with the multitude, for 
that is the place of testimony and of service. But 
at frequent intervals the Father desires to have 
each of his children alone in a quiet place. God 
can do nothing for the prayerless spirit, because 
the prayerless spirit denies him the opportunity of 
the quiet of prayer. If you count it not worth 
while to be often in the sacred solitude of Prayer, 
you should not expect that God will work his mir- 
acles of grace and transformation in your soul. 
Christians often wonder that their spiritual state 
does not improve. They should consider whether 
they have not too often been careless of the "one 
clear call" of God to observe those moments and 

36 



The Quiet of Prayer 

hours when "none but God is near." Live always 
with the multitude, giving God no opportunity to 
have you alone, and you may know more of the life 
of the world. But you will know less of the life 
and power of God. Prayer is not our opportunity 
so much as it is God's opportunity. 

The quiet of prayer is possible, indeed, amidst 
the noises of the multitude. They who have 
learned this fine art of momentary solitude with 
God may have the quiet of prayer anywhere, may 
surround themselves with a fine and beautiful 
silence even amid a thousand tumults. Gracious 
indeed, and efficient ofttimes, are those "flashes of 
silence' ' that strike across the fog and strain of 
our busy life, and tell us "how near is glory to the 
dust." But God's economy of prayer provides 
more often for the privacy of prayer, as if to en- 
force the duty of being alone with God, in form as 
well as in fact. In the Bible, time after time, we 
see God dealing with his servants alone. The great 
events of sacred history, the personal calls and 
inspirations, the opening of new vistas of faith and 
life, transpired in the times of solitude with God. 
Moses at the burning bush, Jacob under the stars 
at Bethel, Gideon at the threshing-floor, Isaiah in 
the temple-court, Peter on the house-top, Saul on 
the road to Damascus — these are a few of many 
instances of the divine method of isolation. It is 

37 



Study to be Quiet 

the method of Jesus also in dealing with souls. 
Nineteen private interviews of the Master with 
souls are recorded in the gospels. It is even his 
method with himself. "He went up into a moun- 
tain apart to pray; and when the evening was 
come, he was there alone." Jesus sought privacy 
in prayer, and the quiet of prayer must have a 
literal meaning for his disciples as well. Public 
prayer, however necessary and useful we find it to 
be, can never be substituted for the higher economy 
of private prayer. Therefore Jesus said, "When 
thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou 
hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in 
secret. ' ' 

Take time to be alone with God. Make holy 
places in life, establish your tent of meeting, where 
in the shadow of silence you can have the literal 
quiet of prayer. Be not so full of the haste of life 
as not to demand for yourself the opportunity of 
the tryst of love, the hour of spiritual recognitions, 
the place of that serious girding of the soul for con- 
flict, that overflow of joy, which every servant of 
the high things of God sorely needs amidst a trying 
world. Neglect the quiet of prayer, and you will 
come to know the bitterness and poverty of the 
spiritual life instead of its sweetness and its wealth. 
Let no child of God be too busy to pray. Too 
busy to pray! Is the body too busy to breathe? 

38 



The Quiet of Prayer 

Is the tree too busy to grow? Is the wheel too 
busy in its turning to observe its points of rest? Is 
the sun too busy in its impressive march, too occu- 
pied with shining, to pause at the summer and 
winter solstice? Neither should the Christian be 
too busy to pray. Prayer is the souPs rest in 
God's presence, the opportunity to gather new 
energy for life. Prayer is the soul's solstice, 
when, in a time of separation from the world, the 
soul looks backward and forward, and most of all, 
upward. Failing to observe this appointed rest, 
the soul loses the ministry of God that can come 
only in silence. He who is too busy to be alone 
with God will never come upon the quietness and 
strength of God, and will be left a prey to his own 
and to the world's noise and unrest. "As thy ser- 
vant was busy here and there, he was gone. " 
The best of all blessings, a spiritual life, may 
escape, while God's servant is "busy here and 
there." 

However strong the call to the life of action, to 
the life of public service and testimony, back of 
that call is the imperious call to the life which 
Tennyson describes as "the silent life of prayer." 

In the quiet of prayer we learn to be more grate- 
ful for God, as we come to know Him better. In 
the quiet of prayer we come to share a sacred 
familiarity with God, and to rejoice in those spir- 

39 



Study to be Quiet 

itual realities which are spoken of in the churches. 
In the devotional classic "Holy Living, " the 
author, Jeremy Taylor, speaks in the third sec- 
tion of "The Third General Instrument of Holy 
Living, ' ' and this he declares is ' ? The Practice of 
the Presence of God. ' ' The Christian will need 
no argument to prove that God is near, yet he 
needs to practice the nearness of God. In the 
quiet of prayer the nearness of God is interpreted 
very sweetly, very helpfully, to the soul, so that 
the soul comes to know the nearness of God, not 
as a fact merely, but as an experience. 

This is because prayer destroys the sense of 
distance, brings the throne of God within touch of 
the hand, within sound of the voice. A famous 
musician thought that one day's lack of practice 
removed his art a little further away from him. A 
painter testified that continuous sketching made 
him less a painter, and he must go back to his 
studio to learn color and shade again. Something 
fine goes out of our lives when we cease to pray. 
It is the sense of the divine nearness. It is the 
ineffable Presence, the Shekinah of the Tabernacle, 
that no child of God can describe, and that no 
child of God can live without and retain the secret 
of his joy. If the Church stopped praying for a 
day, God would seem further away — 

"The King of some remoter star." 
40 



The Quiet of Prayer 

There are many believers who lose a great deal 
of joy out of their lives because the nearness of 
God — such nearness as makes it easy to speak to 
Him — is but faintly realized. They are like those 
who "suffer in sight of land. " They are like those 
whom Seneca describes in his essay on Tranquillity f 
as not unhealthy, but as "too little accustomed to 
health. ' ' There is such a thing as not being accus- 
tomed to the Presence of God. This always clips 
the wings of prayer. 

But prayer persevered in and enjoyed brings 
God near, "nearer than hands and feet, closer than 
breathing. 5 ' If one should sit down in a cable 
office and send a message across the sea, the sense 
of distance would at first be overpowering. There 
would be a feeling of utter strangeness and unre- 
ality. But after a while this would pass away. If 
one kept sending messages day by day, he would 
grow to feel as if he were talking to a neighbor. 
This, in a faint illustration, is the way we should 
grow in the use of prayer. Prayer is simplest and 
truest when it is accompanied by the sense of being 
gently swept into the Presence of God, whose wel- 
come is the welcome of a cordial Friend. With 
such a Friend the feeling of distance is lost, and 
Prayer seems like talking out of the heart to the 
heart of another, the quiet opening of a door 
between the house below and the house above. 

41 



Study to be Quiet 

But this familiarity of prayer is not the familiarity 
that breeds contempt. Rather is it the kind that 
brings a high reverence to the soul, and leaves a 
mark of something finer and better than ourselves 
upon our nature, as when a mother comes in the 
night and leaves a kiss upon the face of her child, 
saying, 

"Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser? " 
Something indefinable, something precious, remains 
after the quiet of prayer, like the sensation of a 
pleasant dream, like the recollection of beautiful 
music, like the sound of a dear voice. 

Ought not this quiet and familiar friendliness of 
prayer to relieve it of burdensomeness? When 
prayer becomes a task, its sweet privilege disap- 
pears. But prayer should not be a task. There 
should be nothing laborious, nothing hard, about 
prayer. Prayer should be as easy as breathing. 
One breathes without resistance, and when breath- 
ing becomes a task, either the air is poor, or the 
lungs are enfeebled. Prayer is truest when it 
meets with no resistance. The poorest way to 
pray is merely to "say" one's prayers. The word 
suggests the running of machinery. Beware of the 
emptiness of form, the hollowness of sound, the 
dryness of habituality, the machinery of method. 
Beware of losing the spirit in the act. Seek the 



42 



The Quiet of Prayer 

very life of prayer, which resides evermore in the 
thought of being quiet and alone with God. A 
believer who is under the dominion of this trans- 
forming thought can never be content merely to 
"say" his prayers. Which of us counts it a task 
to sit down and talk confidingly with a friend? 

The bane of prayer, that which often makes it 
bare and cold and difficult, is lack of attention. 
The weak brother of the hand is the third finger; 
the weak brother of prayer is Attention. Traced 
to its source lack of attention may turn out to be 
lack of love and trust. Never does the Christian 
need an "arrest of thought" so much as when he 
is in prayer. Study to be quiet in the mind, in the 
heart, in the whole inner man, when you pray. 
Fix the heart upon God. If prayer is laborious, 
repetitious, vague, incoherent, meandering like a 
sluggish stream across a tangled meadow, without 
freedom, joy, or inspiration — and who does not 
know this distressing phase of prayer? — it is be- 
cause the mind is choked with obtrusive thoughts, 
or wanders unchecked in distant places. When 
you kneel to pray, think of what prayer is, being 
alone with God. Command the heart to be still 
before God. Call the mind in from its wandering, 
and require it to give heed. There is a gift of 
imperious resolution which every Christian ought 



43 



Study to be Quiet 

to cultivate in relation to prayer, lest prayer may 
become a frittering, helpless mental exercise, that 
has no stronger support than the support of custom. 
Prayer will become joyous when it is redeemed 
from inattention and mechanical formality, and 
enters into the feeling and freedom of a realized 
friendship with God. 

In the quiet of prayer we realize more and more 
the gladness of dependence upon God. Philoso- 
phers have sometimes tried to make a philosophy 
of prayer, relating it to the concepts of Time and 
Space and Being. The philosophy, the logic, 
of prayer is personal. It is based upon a heart 
fact — the sense of need. Every order of nature is 
dependent upon a higher order. "I will answer, 
saith the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they 
shall answer the earth; and the earth shall answer 
the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall 
answer Jezreel." Mrs. Browning speaks of how 
the divine embrace ''slides down by thrills through 
all things made." There are many lower supports 
for the soul, but the ultimate dependence is God. 
In this lies the naturalness of prayer. Not the 
hills, not nature, not humanity, is our help, but He 
who is the Strength of the hills, and of the whole 
earth. Prayer, then, is the heart process in which 
we rest ourselves upon Supreme Help and wait 
patiently for Him. It is not mere words. It is 

44 



The Quiet of Prayer 

feeling, it is attitude, it is leaning upon the One 
whose life and power are 

"The fountain light of all our day, 
The Master-light of all our seeing.' ' 

God does not so much give strength to his chil- 
dren in large gifts as he does by unseen degrees 
and by silent accessions in the quiet of prayer. In 
the fairy tale the child was left in a deep and dark 
place. But presently he found a hidden stairway 
leading up to light and safety. No trouble is so 
great but that the child of God may find in prayer 
a stairway leading up to God. 

In the quiet of prayer we find life's solvent, 
obtain light, receive explanations, get our bearings 
anew for the journeyings of the day and of the 
night. It is a place of renewal, a time of illumi- 
nation. In prayer we bring our work to God, our 
successes, our failures, our troubles, our perplexi- 
ties, not alone to seek his help, but also to see by 
his light, so that the truth of what Eckhart said 
may be evident, "My eye and God's eye are one 
eye, one vision, one recognition, one love." If 
we do not receive express direction about our 
affairs, we shall at least see them in a calmer, 
whiter light, and shall find better interpretations. 
The photographer seeks a "dry light," the benefit 
of an uninterrupted medium. The Christian's 
"dry light" is prayer, where he may get the 

45 



Study to be Quiet 

personal revelation as to life that comes both with 
surprise and comfort to the soul. How often we 
rise from our knees saying, ' ' I never saw it in that 
light before, and God's light is good." In prayer 
the Spirit seems to search the deep things of God 
for us, and we come to know as otherwise we can- 
not, "the things that are freely given to us of 
God. ,, In prayer, therefore, as in study, is found 
the source of that spiritual wisdom of God's chil- 
dren which the world is bound to respect. For 
however skeptical the world grows about prayer, 
the world still confesses that in relation to the king- 
dom of light "the Christian on his knees can often 
see farther than the philosopher on tiptoes.' ' 

Frequenters of the wilderness affirm that there 
is a "woods madness," the kind of insanity that 
possesses a man lost in the woods. Fascinated by 
the deep shade, one who is under this strange spell 
will rush on and on and can scarcely be rescued 
even by force. A recent autobiographer tells how 
on one occasion, when he felt himself in peril of 
such mental wandering, he saved himself by sitting 
down and resting thoughtfully "until I felt quite 
calm." This is what prayer can do. It cures the 
mind of wandering. It restores the sense of direc- 
tion. It opens a pathway in the wilderness. It 
saves us from the fatal fascination of our own self 
trust. 

4 6 



The Quiet of Prayer 

Prayer makes a new atmosphere for life. Hence 
there is an indirect benefit of the Quiet of Prayer 
which other men receive. Coming forth from the 
Quiet of Prayer into the regions of life's activity, 
with the spiritual sky washed as by rain, it is the 
privilege of the child of God to bring cheer and 
healing to the unconscious sadness of the world. 
If men said of Dean Stanley, that to go into his 
presence was like going out under a clear sky, if 
it was said of Louis Agassiz that ten minutes in his 
presence made a strong argument for the immor- 
tality of the soul — so should the world be compelled 
to confess of God's children that the gracious influ- 
ences of the Quiet of Prayer produce a sublime 
simplicity, a joyous sanity and contentment, that 
make life every way richer and better. 

An incident of Mr. Moody's life has been re- 
cently revived by a London preacher. He was 
asked to call upon a poor man in Dundee who had 
been bedridden for a long time. Mr. Moody went 
to take a blessing and got a blessing for himself as 
well. The sick man had grown wise and gracious 
by prayer. When the evangelist left the room he 
said, "I guess when the angels pass over Dundee 
they will stop at that house for refreshments." 

Yet with all this said about the Quiet of Prayer, 
let it not once be supposed that prayer is a nega- 
tive, mystical state, or attitude, whence the soul 

47 



Study to be Quiet 

looks out with helpless though eager desire upon 
the world of need. On the contrary, in prayer is 
born the life of inspiration and courage. Prayer 
is the rightful "poising of the soul between vision 
and task." It is the foe to dullness, to folded 
hands, to that kind of mental and spiritual indo- 
lence which passes the world with its need by on 
the other side. He who prays must also work. 
It is in prayer that we come face to face with our 
own highest ideals, confront anew from day to day 
the standards of the life in Christ, realize the limi- 
tations of the carnal and the freedom of the spiritual 
life, and gain ever new and transforming familiar- 
ity with those thoughts of God and man 

"Which always find us young 
And always keep us so." 

The body grows old and decrepit, but prayer main- 
tains the youth of faith. 

What, then, is the place of prayer in the life of 
the Christian? In music the Obligato is not a 
mere accidental or occasional accompaniment, 
which may or may not be. It is that which is 
obliged to be, that which is indispensable in the 
proper rendering of a musical composition. Prayer 
is the Christian's Obligato. 



4 8 



The Quiet of Speech 



IV 

The Quiet of Speech 

What if we find a very literal meaning in Paul's 
Thessalonian counsel and let it summon us to the 
quiet of speech? Not quiet speech, but quiet of 
speech, the quiet that is greater than the speech, 
that resides in the heart of speech, the silence that 
sometimes interprets the meaning of the kingdom 
to the world even better than speech. There are 
high meanings, yet most practical meanings, too, 
in the oft-quoted maxim, " Speech is silver, silence 
is golden. ' ' Among the many striking descriptions 
and symbols of John's apocalypse none is more 
impressive than that which accompanies the open- 
ing of the seventh seal: ' 'And when he had opened 
the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about 
the space of half an hour. ' ' Shall we suppose that 
when the impressions of the time and place become 
too stupendous for utterance, when praise and wor- 
ship have exhausted themselves, when heaven 
becomes too real for symbolism, for the limitations 
of expression, then the soul takes refuge in silence, 
as if to store up the material of utterance, to correct 
the imperfections of speech, by those quiet measures 
of the soul comprehended in one word, Silence? 

Si 



Study to be Quiet 

The Bible never belittles speech. On the con- 
trary, it creates throughout an impression of the 
majesty and the potency of human speech. The 
command of the Greek philosopher to the stranger 
at his door, " Speak, that I may know thee, " re- 
ceives a more apt expression upon the lips of the 
divine Master, "Out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh. " How wonderful man is: 
first, that he thinks; then that his thoughts may 
flow out upon the air in sounds, letters, syllables, 
words, sentences, sometimes as 

"Linked sweetness long drawn out," 
sometimes like the thunder in power or the wind in 
roughness, sometimes like a stream from the moun- 
tain, rushing, dashing, leaping in the haste of its 
descent, sometimes tinkling like bells as it drops 
in the waterfall, or again resting quietly in calm 
and shadowy pools. The plainest speech of the 
most unlearned is no less than a marvel, especially 
when studied in the light of its revelation of the 
soul, its reproduction of the inner life. Since the 
world began men have prized the arts of speech, 
and have counted it worth while to gain power and 
grace of utterance, whether in oratory, in teaching, 
or in conversation. Hence those valuations of 
speech which are found in the scriptures. This, 
for example, "A word fitly spoken is like apples 
of gold in pictures of silver"; and this, "A man 

52 



The Quiet of Speech 

hath joy by the answer of his mouth; and a word 
spoken in due season, how good it is"; and this 
from Isaiah, "The Lord God hath given me the 
tongue of the learned, that I should know how to 
speak a word in season to him that is weary. ' ' 

A thousand of our joys almost can be traced to 
the gift of speech, which daily blesses us and 
makes us a blessing. Silence grows oppressive; 
speech is relief and comfort. Silence is not neces- 
sarily virtuous. It may be the mark of indiffer- 
ence, even of duplicity. Sir Silence may conceal 
a world of ignorance, and may be the last man of 
the community to imitate. Certain useful adverbs 
come to our aid. Study why to be quiet. Study 
how to be quiet. Study when to be quiet. The 
Bible, with its customary fidelity, points out the 
limitations of speech, as well as its glories. It 
describes the perils of utterance, the frequent 
tragedies of speech, the unregistered crimes of the 
tongue. With great impressiveness Jesus summed 
up his teaching as to the responsibility of speech, 
the serious relation of words to his kingdom, "By 
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words 
thou shalt be condemned.' ' No careless art is 
this fine art of speech, in the view of the divine 
Teacher, to be exercised in haste, without thought, 
study, and deliberation. Rather is it an art that 
is to be accompanied by study, an art to be gov- 

53 



Study to be Quiet 

erned by spiritual laws, to be made fine indeed, an 
art to be carried up into the highest regions of the 
soul's life, even while it descends to the most ordi- 
nary service. All this accentuates the literalism 
of the Pauline sentence: study to be Quiet. 

The underlying truth that needs emphasis is that 
Christianity does not consist of speech. Important 
as the utterance of Christianity is, it is neverthe- 
less something far deeper than words, it is made 
up of thoughts that do 

"Often lie too deep for tears/ ' 
The Christian faith can never be exhausted in 
words, can never be fully expressed in language. 
We must convince the world that our life is greater 
than our words, that the things that are not spoken 
are greater than the things that are spoken, greater 
than testimonies, greater than creeds and confes- 
sions. A gentleman speaks of being alone with 
Theodore Roosevelt when he had his first view of 
the Pacific Ocean. The President was deeply im- 
pressed, but "he said very little about it." The 
ocean is too great for words. In Christianity there 
are things that cannot be said, that simply are. 
In these realities that underlie utterance, in this 
quiet that resides behind speech, life must ever 
root itself and grow strong. The Christian strong- 
hold is not words, but knowledge, experience. The 
apostle John seems to be thinking of the power 

54 



The Quiet of Speech 

beyond words in Christianity when he writes of 
"many other things which Jesus did, the which, if 
they should be written every one, I suppose that 
even the world itself could not contain the books 
that should be written. ' ' How often has this truth 
become personal to us, and we have felt that faith 
has brought sweeter things to us than we can ever 
express. We can never tell the world in words 
what Christ is to us. One who had journeyed to 
the famous Yellowstone and returned to describe 
it to his friends, paused often in the midst of his 
description to say, "But I cannot tell you — you 
must go and see for yourself. ' ' Other travelers 
who have journeyed within the region of Christ's 
awakening influence have come back to meet the 
world's inquiry and skepticism with an invitation, 
"Come and see. ,, What we feel about Christ in 
relation to our inner life is indescribable. We only 
know that he is "all in all." There is something 
immeasurable in Christ, something that must ever 
elude rhetoric and eloquence. Christ is greater 
than our words, greater than our thoughts, greater 
than our imaginations. 

It is true that we must be ready always to give 
"an answer to every man that asketh us a reason 
of the hope that is inus. M But the strength of 
this answer must be more than the strength of 
words and argument. Words alone cannot sup- 

55 



Study to be Quiet 

port the claims of Christ. There is a quiet of 
speech which must underlie speech, a manifest 
assurance, a bounteous joy, an unmistakable ex- 
perience. "I know whom I have believed" — let 
the words stand alone and they are as empty as air. 
But back of these words put a heart that is evi- 
dently constrained by love, a life that is illuminated 
by the light of God that is in the face of Christ, 
and the testimony becomes living and powerful. 
It is the majesty of experience, the impressiveness 
of life itself, that constitutes the ultimate answer of 
faith. Know Christ in your heart, come into the 
intimacies of faith. Keep your life in touch with 
his spiritual ministry. Let your attitude in all 
things be that of one who has come to the Holy of 
Holies, and has been touched with reverence and 
awe. Make your life sacred and glad and Christ- 
like. Have somewhat behind your words — knowl- 
edge, experience, reality — that shall express mere 
than you can ever say, that shall tell the world of 
a deeper meaning in faith than you can ever put 
into technical formulae or connected argument. 
Let us call this the quiet of speech, the unspoken 
behind the spoken, the silent force of experience, 
the massive power of a redeemed life. Show the 
world that the heart of a Christian contains more 
precious things than can be put into speech. In 
one of the most remarkable books of the genera- 

56 



The Quiet of Speech 

tion, the autobiography of a soul shrouded by nature 
in a ten-fold darkness, that was led forth by the 
skill and devotion of human teachers into a marvel- 
ous light, Helen Keller writes this sentence to a 
friend, "If the light were not in your eyes, you 
would understand better how happy your little 
Helen was when her teacher explained to her that 
the best and most beautiful things in the world can- 
not be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the 
heart.' ' Is it not an echo of the apostle: "The 
things that are not seen are eternal"? In all this 
we are summoning the believer, not to vagaries and 
bigotries of experience, not to the false insistence 
of the "inner light," not to any indifference to out- 
ward expressions and confessions; we are simply 
calling the believer to the recognition of the regal 
fact in Christianity — that it must be known and felt 
and experienced before it can be truly spoken, that 
even after it is known and experienced, there is 
something in faith that defies words, that "eye 
cannot see, nor ear hear. ' ' Therefore study to be 
quiet in your faith. Know more. Feel more. 
Grow more. Let your life be deep, "rooted and 
grounded in Christ." Believe in a gracious testi- 
mony, and believe still more in a gracious experi- 
ence. Speak! but study all the while the quiet 
things of faith and life that are behind speech. 
The gracious art of listening is one expression 
57 



Study to be Quiet 

of the quiet of speech. There is so much for the 
Christian to learn. A world of spiritual knowl- 
edge and experience is awaiting him. The " things 
that God hath prepared" — what plenty, what mag- 
nitude they have. The "manifold wisdom' ' of 
God has wrought in the gospel. "My Father 
worketh hitherto, " said Jesus, "and I work." 
No wonder that the Beings who dwell above should 
desire with angelic curiosity "to look into these 
things. ' ' But what a summons comes to the child 
of God out of this abundant preparation, to a studi- 
ous and thoughtful life, to a life of listening for the 
truth of God. There is much to speak, but there 
is more to learn. Let no man think that the Chris- 
tian life is shallow, or lacking in intellectuality. 
Every faculty of the soul may be fully occupied in 
the life of faith. Let us here make an earnest 
appeal for more thoughtfulness in the Christian life. 
Think! Meditate! Study! Listen! "He who 
speaks sows, he who listens reaps. ' ' The Greeks 
spoke of Epaminondas as the man "who never 
says anything, but will listen eternally. " There 
is a danger in the Christian life that is worthy of 
care. It is the danger of giving out without taking 
in. This is one peril of the Christian ministry. 
Week in and week out, as the years go on, the ser- 
vant of God in the ministry continues to sow by 
speech. Soon exhaustion will come unless with 

58 



The Quiet of Speech 

each day's sowing he continues to reap by listen- 
ing, to store the mind and heart by study, medita- 
tion, and prayer. It must be frankly said that 
many Christians seem to realize but faintly the 
necessity for the quiet life of study, the silent, in- 
ward growth of the soul in grace and knowledge. 
They live a haphazard, accidental, hand-to-mouth 
Christian life. They snatch their spiritual food as 
they go much as travelers eat hasty lunches in rail- 
way stations. In the midst of a thousand affairs 
of the busy age they give little heed to the call to 
study to be quiet. If Moses had plead' the needs 
of his flock and had failed to turn aside to see the 
bush that "burned with fire and was not con- 
sumed, " he would have been like some of God's 
servants to-day whose lives are occupied every inch 
with the world, and who find no time to live in the 
soul, to have companionship with God, to look into 
the heart of spiritual truth, to heal the wounds of the 
world by the hygiene of a spiritual life. Hence 
some of God's children are in that precarious state 
of spiritual exhaustion that must infallibly rob them 
of joy, and at the same time bring feebleness to 
the kingdom. With us, as with the keeper of 
Jethro's flock, it will be when we "turn aside to 
see," that God will call to us and will give us new 
measures of knowledge, new quickenings of life. 
Go not too hastily on your way to pause at the 

59 



Study to be Quiet 

Burning Bush. If life shall not find time to "take 
root downward" how shall it have power "to bear 
fruit upward"? The command is the military 
word, "Attention!' ' Give time to God. 

One of the best ways to reap by listening, to 
grow wealthy in quiet, is to walk thoughtfully and 
observantly along the varied pathways of God's 
Word. Write upon the title-page of your own 
Bible, "Be still, O my soul, and listen to God." 
Why should Bible-reading be mechanical and labori- 
ous? Why should it not be joyous and vitalizing, 
full of buoyancy and expectation? The naturalist 
wanders up and down the pathways of the forest, 
listening to the voices of nature, lying sometimes 
beneath the trees, peering among the bushes, rest- 
ing by the side of still waters, and filled all the 
while with the exhilaration of search, the joy of 
discovery. A botanist in the Western mountains 
has just been rewarded, after twenty-five years' 
search, by finding a certain rare mountain flower. 
Why should not God's people take delight in his 
Word, read it with relish, search it with expecta- 
tion? What a land of surprise it is to him who in 
the love of God wanders in the meadows and 
climbs the rugged mountains of his Word, looking 
eagerly into its great depths, gazing reverently at 
its inaccessible heights, stooping often to pick a 
flower, resting betimes beneath the shadow of some 

60 



The Quiet of Speech 

great rock, listening ever for that voice that speaks 
to the soul, the voice that no man can ever mistake 
for a human voice. Listen to whatsoever teacher 
can bring you nearer to the kingdom of grace. 
But more than all, listen to God, be led of the 
Spirit, be taught in his Word. There are hours of 
Christian vision when the eye of hope sees large 
numbers of God's people, especially of his young 
servants, keenly alive to the Word of God, deliv- 
ered from the drudgery of searching it, knowing 
the joy and plentitude of it, living and working in 
the stimulating atmosphere of it. The realization 
of such a vision would mean spiritual wealth to a 
multitude of hearts, and fresh power to the church 
of God. Until the children of God find time to 
listen to God in his Word, they will neither reap 
plentifully for themselves nor store up abundant 
blessings for the lives of others. If Chrysostom 
was right in saying that "many of our evils come 
from not knowing the Scripture/ ' may we not 
believe also, that to know God's Word is to mul- 
tiply our joy and usefulness ten-fold? But no mere 
mechanical knowledge of the Bible will suffice for 
this, no mere facility in quotation, no mere skillful 
manipulation of the rosary of words, verses, and 
chapters. ' ' Let the Word of Christ dwell in you 
richly in all wisdom" is the advice of the apostle. 
Enter into its life and movement, find its spirit, its 

6 1 



Study to be Quiet 

atmosphere, get the feeling of the Book, live in the 
love of it. 

"To him who in the love of Nature holds 
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language.' ' 

So with the Bible. All this emphasizes the need 
of time, of quiet listening and study. Study to be 
quiet with God's Word. "Stand thou still a while 
that I may show thee the word of God. f ' 

There is a princely Christian habit of reserve in 
speech which may be reckoned as the highest literal- 
ism of the quiet of speech. Many persons spend 
much time in studying what to say. Let us spend 
some time also in considering what not to say. 
Study to be quiet. Among many prayers, the 
Psalmist utters this one, "Set a watch, O Lord, 
before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. , ' A 
Frenchman paid a simple compliment to his friend. 
"He had a great talent for silence," he said. 
When Charlotte Bronte had finished "Shirley," she 
wrote, "May God give me grace to be silent until 
I must speak again." The talent for silence is 
not the least among the talents that are to be culti- 
vated in the kingdom of God. How many, alas, 
hide this talent and use it not! 

The art of gracious speech is difficult, but the 
art of being silent is more difficult still. The 
preacher declares in Ecclesiastes that "there is a 

62 



The Quiet of Speech 

time to keep silence. ' ' The apostle James devotes 
a chapter to the unmanageable tongue. 

The New Testament in many places points out 
the perils of speech, counseling "sound speech, " 
advising to be "slow to speak,' ' not to speak evil 
of men, to speak with love, to put away jealousy, 
bitterness, and faction, to speak with grace, "sea- 
soned with salt. " Many writers have recognized, 
with the Son of Sirach, that "the tongue of a man 
is his fall." The great Bishop Butler composed a 
plain-spoken sermon on "The Government of the 
Tongue. ' ' Old John Trapp averred that the tongue 
is set midway between the head and the heart that 
it might take counsel of both. A peasant came to 
a monk to be taught the scripture. He began 
with the Psalm, "I said I will take heed to my 
ways that I sin not with my tongue.' ' The peas- 
ant went away to practice it and never returned. 

The keeper of a dog kennel gave a striking reply 
to the question, "Are they as hard to manage as 
people?" "No," he said, "but they would be if 
they could talk." 

It is not too much to exalt silence into a Chris- 
tian virtue. We can serve God by speech, and we 
can serve God also by silence. God's children 
should know the law of the reserve of speech. 
Study to be quiet. "Silence is the most massive 
thing conceivable, ' ' says Dr. Burton, in the Divinity 

63 



Study to be Quiet 

Lectures. "It is strength in very grandeur. It 
is like a regiment ordered to stand still in the mad 
fury of battle. To plunge in were twice as easy. ,, 
Carlyle intimates that a rich find awaits him who 
will study the silences of Cromwell. One would 
like to know more about Seraiah, of whom the 
prophet Jeremiah, according to the King James 
version, tells us a notable thing. "This Seraiah 
was a quiet prince.' ' There is a Celtic proverb 
that says, "Melodious is the closed mouth.' ' 

Should not the tongue be a Christian, too, as 
well as the head and the heart? The princely 
Christian law of reserve in speech bids us do some 
sharp work with our unchristianized, our heathen 
tongues. Put away censorious and scornful speech. 
No man, thought Carlyle, can safely live in an 
atmosphere of contempt. Put away gossipy 
speech, which is as careless of the reputation of a 
man as that pecking bird of the woods is careless 
of the welfare of a tree. Put away bitter speech. 
The dove is the proper type of the Holy Spirit, for 
the dove has no gall. Put away unkind speech. 
Let the "law of kindness" be in the tongue. Put 
away angry speech. "When one of you is angry, 
sit down; and if the anger still endures, lie down." 
Put away hasty speech. "The world is rankling 
from hasty speech." Put away unclean speech, 
whatsoever has a taint upon it, for the "wisdom 

6 4 



The Quiet of Speech 

that is from above is first pure." Sublimate 
speech. Let it reflect the fineness of the spiritual 
kingdom. "I have received the laurel," wrote 
Tennyson of Wordsworth, ''greener from him who 
uttered nothing base." Equally fine was the ideal 
that he set before the world in his description of 
that king, 

"Who spake no slander, no, nor listen'd to it." 

Finally, consider the perfect example of Jesus 
Christ. Study the silences of your Lord and 
Master. "Never man spake like this man." Yet 
Jesus never seems to say too much. The first 
thirty years of his life were silent years. One 
sentence only is recorded belonging to those years. 
The gospels indeed record many discourses and 
conversations of his active ministry. But the im- 
pression never passes away, as we read the gospels, 
of a quiet source of strength that is more than the 
power of speech. Greater than the sweetness and 
force of his discourse, greater than the miracles 
themselves, is the miracle that Jesus himself was. 
There is no other argument so strong for the quiet 
force of Christian character as is found in the 
character of the Divine Founder of Christianity. 
Not his words alone, but He Himself is the center 
of the Christian religion. His life is greater than 
anything that he said. Or better, his life is the 
background of all that he said. There were times 

65 



Study to be Quiet 

when "he held his peace and answered nothing." 
He practised the reserve of speech. Study the 
gospels to note what Jesus did not say, as well as 
what he did say. Mark, for example, his com- 
parative silence towards Judas. Observe the kind- 
ness of his words to the Samaritan woman, even 
while he revealed her sin to her. The ministry of 
Christ — how quiet, how forceful, how much a prod- 
uct of himself, how far beyond the mere potency of 
speech it is. 

Doubtless the Master is willing to share this 
secret of his quiet, mighty ministry with his dis- 
ciples. He will give us, if we are willing, the 
power of a Christ-like life, and this will often speak 
when words are lacking. 



66 



The Quiet of Service 



The Quiet of Service 

Let us look at the Pauline sentence once more, 
and let it remind us of the Quiet of Service. 
Among the collects of the Book of Prayer none is 
more appropriate than that one in which the people 
pray that "they may be cleansed from all their 
sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind." 

Christianity is not a form of mysticism. It 
invites meditation, but it does not end in medita- 
tion. It insists upon an inner experience, but it 
insists also that experience shall result in something 
more than a fervent heat of the soul. It demands 
that the soul shall look out of its windows and see 
the harvest-field. It deprecates folded hands, and 
empty visions. It presents the task of faith, as 
well as the joy of faith. It frames the idea of hap- 
piness in the thought of duty. Turner, the artist, 
counting atmosphere in painting everything, said 
that he wished he could get along without trees 
altogether. But trees, houses, birds, animals, and 
human beings in a picture stand for action, for life. 
A thoughtful writer says that he went into the 
wilderness, into isolation from humanity, to find 
spiritual life, and found "the dullest form of intel- 

69 



Study to be Quiet 

lectual or spiritual existence." No man can live 
well by isolation. Spirituality grows by exercise, 
by contact, by service. Hence it is that the final 
word of Christianity is Service. 

It is first an Old Testament ideal. Even kings 
were servants of Jehovah. Pre-eminently it is a 
New Testament ideal. No one can open his heart 
to the spirit that pervades the New Testament 
without confronting the idea of Service. To read 
the New Testament without grasping this formative 
idea would be like " untwisting the colors of the 
rainbow." Everywhere about this little Book, 
which Ewald once said "contains all the wisdom 
of the world, " there is a permeative feeling, a 
movement, an atmosphere. There is an irresist- 
ible power that sets everything in motion, that 
"turns the world upside down," that brooks no 
obstacle of land or sea, that knocks at the gates of 
cities, that stands unafraid in the presence of 
earthly thrones, that operates expansively by an 
inexhaustible dynamic of energy and action. As 
long as the people of God continue to live in the 
atmosphere of the New Testament, they will con- 
tinue to be aggressive and forceful. It is the 
spirit of the 'Book. 

Nor is this spirit of service that inhabits the 
New Testament a mere indefinable influence: it is 
the spirit of the Divine Person who moves through- 

70 



The Quiet of Service 

out the New Testament, from the Manger to the 
Cross, from the Cross to the Throne on high. His 
humiliation is stated in such terms, "He took upon 
him the form of a servant.' ' When he was yet a 
child in the temple he voiced his conception of his 
task — "I must be about my Father's business." 
The gospels record the busy life of the Son of Man. 
How full of toil were his three years. A passion 
for service possessed him; he willingly obeyed an 
irresistible impulse. "I must work the w T orks of 
Him that sent me while it is day," he said. "The 
night cometh when no man can work." Never 
was there a more impressive definition of opportu- 
nity. Even the Saviour of the world was limited 
in time and place. He saw the shadow that crept 
towards him, but nothing could make him falter. 
He had the Messiah's work to perform. It was 
the joy of his heart to do this work. "I have meat 

to eat that ye know not of My meat is to 

do the will of Him that sent me and to finish his 
work. ' ' Throughout his ministry he was training 
the Twelve in the spirit of service. His miracles 
were for the benefit of his disciples as well as of 
those who were healed. They saw him in these 
wonderful works as the servant of mankind. For 
the most part he permitted his ministry to testify 
silently to the spirit of service. A few times he 
spoke of it, as when he said, t ' I am among you as 

71 



Study to be Quiet 

He that serveth. ,, In that connection he pointed 
out to them that the pre-eminence they were to seek 
should be that of service. He that is chief let him 
be a servant. At another time he said, "The 
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, " that is, to be a servant. On a still more 
notable occasion he showed his disciples how far 
the spirit of service could go in his ministry, by 
performing the menial work of washing their feet, 
and to this act he added a comment — "The servant 
is not greater than his lord. ' ■ The world has had 
many servants, but Jesus Christ is the greatest, 
truest Servant of all. 

The Master's idea of life became the inheritance 
of his disciples. It was an architectonic idea. 
About it as a formative, energizing thought the 
New Testament church was built. See, for in- 
stance, how it took hold of the Apostle Paul. It 
came to him first in his call — "I have appeared 
unto thee to make thee a servant." Often he 
spoke of himself as the servant — the bond-servant 
— of Jesus Christ. Those mighty, abundant labors 
of the apostle in the lands about the Mediterranean 
— there is no other explanation of them except the 
heroic enthusiasm of a high-born service. When 
he would sum up the spirit of the gospel, he said, 
"We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the 
Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." 

72 



The Quiet of Service 

Christ's thought of service has taken deep hold 
upon the world. It belongs to his church espe- 
cially, but it is not confined to his church. It has 
spread abroad and has tempered and educated the 
spirit of the world. The highest types of life 
known in the world are they that have reflected 
the Christ idea. Usefulness has become, under 
the tutelage of Christianity, a note of the higher 
world-life. The best literature of the strong na- 
tions repeats it. We hear Mrs. Browning, for 
instance, saying — 

"Get leave to work in the world, 
'Tis the best you get at all." 

Enlightened government is not a form of mastery 
so much as it is a form of organized service. 
Human society in none of its forms indeed exists 
for itself alone. Through revolutions, through 
perils, through mighty transitions, slowly, pain- 
fully, the world makes room for Christ's idea of 
service. In the intense light of the Christian Gos- 
pel that is now burning in Christian lands, it may 
be frankly said that there is no real respectability 
of soul, no genuine worth and dignity of life, apart 
from the Christian idea of usefulness. There are 
many, let us thankfully acknowledge, who have 
caught the Christian spirit of service even though 
they have not openly confessed Christ. So per- 
meative, so expansive, is the idea. 

73 



Study to be Quiet 

Now, what is the nature of Christian service? 
The answer is in this final use of the Pauline sen- 
tence. Study to be quiet in service. How quietly 
Jesus Christ moved in setting up his kingdom. 
There was stir enough, but he himself seems free 
from noise and agitation. Deeply impressive are 
his Messianic poise and confidence. More than 
once he disapproved of methods that tended to dis- 
play and demonstration, as when he forbade his 
friends to go bruiting the story of his miracles, and 
when he departed into a mountain to avoid the 
attentions of those who would make him king by 
force. World kingdoms are set up by the sword, 
with ceremony, with noise, and display. The 
kingdom of God comes "not with observation. ' ' 
In this singular manner of the establishment of the 
kingdom lies a great secret of God, which is also 
the secret of his people, and which none of his chil- 
dren can afford to overlook. This secret relates to 
the quiet of service. The forces that build the 
Christian kingdom are not noisy. There is no 
"sound of brass' ' about the Christian task, nothing 
blatant, nothing artificial, or officious. The king- 
dom comes neither by routine, nor by rule. Faith, 
Trust, Prayer, Service itself — all these are quiet 
forces, like gravitation, like the sun drawing water. 
Vast and wide-reaching as the enterprises of Chris- 
tianity are, we cannot with safety forget that the 

74 



The Quiet of Service 

kingdom cometh "not with observation. ' ' To this 
truth of the quiet of service God's children must 
ever keep returning. 

The most important meaning of the quiet of 
service comes to us when we realize the superiority 
of power to method. With a few exceptions the 
New Testament is not a book of methods. It is a 
book of power. The Acts of the Apostles, for 
instance, describing the thrilling progress of the 
gospel in Mediterranean lands, lays but slight em- 
phasis upon method and organization. Christ him- 
self gave the keynote for the early church when 
he said — "Ye shall receive power after that the 
Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be 
witnesses unto me. 9S In due time method came 
to be considered, for the King's business could not 
be done without plan, and the children of the king- 
dom should be as wise as the children of the world. 
Nevertheless, it was evidently the purpose of the 
Master to show his disciples that the forces of the 
kingdom are spiritual, not material. This indeed 
was the prophet's announcement — "Not by might, 
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. ' ' 
Method, plan, organization — all that is included in 
enterprise and energy — are very important for the 
success of Christian work, but none of these can 
take the place of spiritual power. Christianity is 
not a system to be worked; it is a life to be lived. 

75 



Study to be Quiet 

Life is more than machinery; godliness is greater 
than method. The Apostle Paul writing to Tim- 
othy speaks of those who have "a form of godli- 
ness," but deny "the power thereof." Let us 
multiply the ways of working, but let us hold fast 
always to the spirit of service. God calls for 
enterprise in his servants, but never at the expense 
of spiritual power. The need of the church to-day 
is not for more method, but for more power, deeper 
personal consecration, higher devotion to the ideal 
of service, richer gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let us 
frankly face the danger that comes to the church 
in a day when outward forces are greatly increased. 
It is the danger of an unconscious denial of "the 
power of godliness." The busier we grow in 
Christian work, the greater the need of the quiet 
of service. Behind all your activity you must have 
your own quiet with God. Are you growing as 
well as working? Beware of the subtle temptation 
to be so much occupied with things to be done as 
to forget to live in your own life, to grow richer in 
faith, more gracious in spirit. As the tree is 
behind its leaves, as the depth of the ocean is 
beneath its waves, so the life of the Christian must 
be behind his work. Do not mistake the glamor 
and excitement of service for the real spirit of ser- 
vice. The spirit of service is fed by the deepen- 
ing of the inner life. 

76 



The Quiet of Service 

Consider the quiet of service in the light of 
fidelity, sincere devotion to duty, fidelity to the 
utmost, doing our best for Chrises cause — these 
are the equivalents of the quiet of service. It is 
required of Christian stewards, according to the 
New Testament, that they be found faithful. 
Asked his special reasons for thanksgiving, a 
thoughtful, Christian gentleman replied, "I thank 
God that I have an inclination to work." Happy 
are they who are devoted to their work, who count 
it worth while to be faithful, who honor their Mas- 
ter and themselves also by doing their work as well 
as they can. A "workman that needeth not to be 
ashamed' ' is Paul's description of the faithful ser- 
vant. Mr. Spurgeon spoke of those who "scamp" 
their work for Christ, leaving it with many blem- 
ishes, while Mr. Ruskin, in the "Seven Lamps of 
Architecture," insists that Truth requires the 
builder to build beautifully and well in the obscure 
corners as well as in the open places. The shame 
of workmanship appears in the failure to be faith- 
ful in the least as well as the greatest. Blessed is 
the Christian who sees some nobility in being faith- 
ful on a committee. Blessed is the Christian who 
is afraid to leave his work undone. 

There is nothing noisy or obtrusive about Fidel- 
ity. It is essentially a quiet force. Yet it is a 
force, and often a mighty force. Fidelity is some- 

77 



Study to be Quiet 

times slow, but it wins the race, as did the tortoise 
running with the hare. We note the fact that 
some lives seem to be endowed with quiet strength. 
It is usually the strength of fidelity. They have a 
high ideal of their task, and are willing to keep 
their hands upon the plow without turning back. 
At length the furrow is completed. Many things 
fail that are noisily begun, that might have suc- 
ceeded by quiet fidelity. God needs a multitude 
of servants who are willing to practice silent fidel- 
ity. Do your duty. Do it quietly. Do it well. 
Do not idle. Do not lag. Do not dawdle. Do 
not neglect. Ask not for praise. Love not pre- 
eminence. Some day — even now in the heart — 
the divine voice may be heard saying, "Well done, 
good and faithful servant." Count it no small 
thing to have the satisfaction of a faithful life. 
Such a life will know no boasting, will be marked, 
indeed, by a rare unconsciousness of fame. The 
life will shine like the face of Moses, without the 
faithful servant's knowledge. Fidelity is the one 
quality in which all the world rejoices and the silent 
fidelity of the children of God is winning daily vic- 
tories for his cause, where knowledge, riches, and 
eloquence are lacking. 

Many servants of God must experience the quiet 
of service in another phase, and must be content to 
remain unknown in their silent fidelity to God. It 

78 



The Quiet of Service 

is the sphere of many to labor, not upon the heights, 
but in the valleys. Many, like Barnabas, must 
walk in the shadow of some greater Paul. Some 
must minister obscurely or by indirection. Even 
Christ pleased not himself in his rich service and 
sacrifice. Neither should his disciples selfishly 
seek their own ambitions. There are hidden val- 
ues of obscurity, and there is a valuable ministry 
of the unknown, which help to build the kingdom. 
What was the name of the town-clerk who quelled 
the mob in Ephesus? Of the lad on the shore of 
Lake Galilee, who furnished the loaves and fishes 
for the Lord's miracle? Of the boy who saved 
the Apostle Paul from the plot? Of the four who 
carried their friend to Christ and let him down 
through the roof? Of the one leper of the ten who 
returned and gave thanks to Christ? Of the sol- 
dier who mingled the draught and gave it to the 
suffering Saviour? Of the wise men who came to 
Bethlehem following the star? Names drop out, 
but service remains. In the sixteenth chapter of 
Romans Paul mentions a list of disciples, Asyn- 
critus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, "and 
the brethren which are with them. ,, They were 
evidently not destined to prominence, but the inti- 
mation is that they were faithful. Fidelity is more 
than fame. God's kingdom, like a building, is 
made up of invisible as well as visible parts. 

79 



Study to be Quiet 

There are many "uncalendared saints, M and there 
is much anonymous virtue. Be willing to be un- 
known. But never be willing to be unfaithful. In 
Italian art galleries one often sees pictures labeled 
Ignoto, and is tempted to stop and pay tribute to 
genius that was illustrious though nameless. 

In the kingdom the quiet of service often hides 
true greatness. It is the greatness of fidelity. Is 
there one kind of sainthood only, or are there not 
two kinds? One, the kind that is widely known 
and recognized in the world; the other, the kind 
that the world knows not, but that will some day 
be revealed. There is a glory of public service, 
and there is also a glory of obscurity. The back- 
ground of both is fidelity. In the divine plan also 
our private fidelity may come into wider use. For 
the time it may be some of us are mere under- 
studies, to work along faithfully and obscurely, 
preparing for something — we know not what. 
Work such as this requires a special courage of 
devotion: to attract little attention, but to be learn- 
ing our part, to seem to be doing very little, but to 
be getting ready. The deeper truth about prepara- 
tion is that sometimes we are preparing for a larger 
work than we know. The great work of the world 
seems to be done by those whom we call " princi- 
pals.' ' But not infrequently God calls the substi- 
tute up higher and gives him the work of a 

80 



The Quiet of Service 

"principal" to do. To be ready — this is also the 
meaning of the quiet of service. There was a king 
long ago who was called Ethelred the Unready. 
His very name is a warning. The "unready* ' are 
a heavy weight for the kingdom to bear. 

And the servant of one talent — it is the quiet of 
service that emphasizes his usefulness in the king- 
dom. Our Lord drew a picture of men with 
talents. There is much interest in the man of 
five talents and in the man of two talents. But 
there is tragic interest in the man of- one talent. 
This man who brought his earth-smelling talent 
back to his lord, saying, with a brazen courage, 
"Lo, there thou hast that is thine, " is pilloried 
before the world as a man of impertinent folly. 
He had disregarded the Law of Use. The lord in 
the parable seems severe when he says — "Even 
that which he hath shall be taken away from him." 
He was only announcing the Law of Use, which is 
incontrovertible. Use not and you will lose. Use 
and you will not lose. An old legend tells us that 
Jesus and his disciples were going one summer day 
from Jerusalem to Jericho. Peter was at his side. 
On the road, as they went, lay a horseshoe, which 
the Master desired Peter to pick up. But the dis- 
ciple let it lie because he did not count it worth 
while. Jesus, however, stooped and picked it up. 
In the village he exchanged it for a measure of 

8i 



Study to be Quiet 

cherries. When they came to a hill, and the way 
lay between heated rocks, Peter was tormented 
with thirst and fell behind. Then the Master 
dropped a ripe cherry at every few steps, teaching 
him the lesson that things despised often come to 
unexpected uses. 

The real tragedy of life is not in being limited 
to one talent, but in the failure to use the one 
talent. In the Kingdom of God there is "one 
clear call for me" to serve, whether I have one 
talent or many to command. "I am but one, but 
I am one; I cannot do much, but I can do some- 
thing. What I can do I ought to do, and God 
helping me, I will do." Happily there is plenty 
of work to be done in the kingdom that does not 
exceed our capacity. So diversified also are its 
needs that every type of ability may find play. 
Peter seems to have had the gift of speech, while 
John was a more silent disciple. Said the squirrel 
to the mountain, " If I cannot bear forests on my 
back, neither can you crack a nut. ' ■ Feeble ener- 
gies will have their opportunity. Not infrequently 
a small key will unlock a large door. If you dis- 
cover that you are God's key, be willing to be 
used, whether for purposes large or small. 
"If you cannot speak like angels, 

If you cannot preach like Paul, 

You can tell the love of Jesus, 

You can say he died for all." 
82 



The Quiet of Service 

What of success in service? Success is a proper 
desire, but it is not the highest motive. The chief 
motive is duty, fidelity. It has been said that 
"men of principle need not succeed. Success is 
necessary only to schemers. ■ ' Real success often 
involves apparent failure. Do the will of God, and 
you cannot know failure. Real success lies in 
being and doing all we can for God. God calls us 
to be at our best, to live up to our fullest measure 
for him; not to piece out a spiritual life by patch- 
work, by misfits, by scantily filled vacancies. Be 
as useful a disciple as you can be, as you ought to 
be. This is success, no matter what the outward 
results and conditions may be. Paul's words make 
a good motto: "As much as in me is I am ready. " 
God will often see success where the world saw 
failure. "Hew to the line, no matter where the 
chips fall." 

Ask to be delivered from "laboring" in the ser- 
vice of Christ. Learn the beauty of duty. The 
quiet of service means to be free from the creaking 
and grinding of unlubricated machinery. Many of 
God's children lack the enjoyment of religion be- 
cause they have not yet discovered the sweetness 
of service. But when the education of grace has 
carried us nearer to the heart of the kingdom, we 
shall awaken to a delightful surprise, that service 
is not compulsion at all, but inclination. Then we 

83 



Study to be Quiet 

can even venture the words of the Master, "My 
meat is to do the will of him that sent me. ' ' Then 
"labor" departs and the joy of service comes. 
Even the "Mountain of Difficulty, ' ' of which Bun- 
yan speaks, will lose its terrors, and we shall count 
it a joy to "endure hardness' ' for Jesus Christ. 



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